Workshop Leader
Polly Young-Eisendrath
Polly Young-Eisendrath, Ph.D., is a Jungian analyst, psychologist, and psychotherapist in private practice. She is Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Vermont and the founder and director of the Institute for Dialogue Therapy. She is past president of the Vermont Association for Psychoanalytic Studies and a founding member of the Vermont Institute for the Psychotherapies. Polly is also the chairperson of Enlightening Conversations, a series of conversational conferences which bring together participants from the front lines of Buddhism and psychoanalysis. She is the author or editor of eighteen books, ranging from parenting, adult development, intimate and parental love, Buddhist theory, Jungian psychology to women’s development, couple therapy, couple development, and various paths to awakening/enlightenment from meditation to personal love. These books have been translated into more than twenty languages. Her most recent works are "The Self-Esteem Trap: Raising Confident and Compassionate Kids in an Age of Self-Importance" and "Love Between Equals: Relationship as a Spiritual Path". Dr. Young-Eisendrath is a lifelong Buddhist practitioner in Zen, Tibetan, and Vipassana lineages and brings decades of leadership in mindfulness practice within the Buddhist context as well as integrated into her clinical work.
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Polly Young-Eisendrath, Ph.D.: Living Together Without Falling Apart: Using Real Dialogue to Increase Trust and End Polarization During “Lockdown”
10 Saturdays 11am-12pm EDT
While we are surrounded by massive uncertainty within an unfolding pandemic and an economic free-fall, we may also feel afraid of what is happening between us. Are we fraying the very bonds on which we depend for problem-solving, decision-making, and social and spiritual support? In this course of ten one-hour classes, we will learn to increase trust in our relationships by becoming more skillful in how we speak and listen, and by lowering emotional threat levels. We will also investigate why it is so difficult for human beings to “get” each other, especially when we feel defensive. In any important conversation or negotiation, there is no progress without BOTH sides of a conflict being seen/heard/felt. Both sides and both points of view are needed to find lasting solutions.
Too often we resort to premature closure (giving up and walking away) or to premature compromise (saying we agree when we don’t) and fail to get to know both sides. This course will teach you the three components of Real Dialogue: (1) Speaking for Yourself; (2) Listening Mindfully; (3) Remaining Curious. You will come away with an enhanced understanding of what it means to be a “mindful witness” and why your own subjective experience accounts for most of what you see/hear/feel.
Although the course is for you as a personal communicator with your friends and family, it can also help you professionally if you are a life coach, a therapist, an executive coach, a leader, a teacher or in another kind of business or helping profession.
